


Ascend Unto Purgatory

by WotanAnubis



Category: Pyre (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Liberation Rite, Mild Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 23:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11931417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: In which Jodariel has trouble getting dressed.





	Ascend Unto Purgatory

**Author's Note:**

> **_Thus ends the Liberation Rite. And thus the Scribes have chosen: the Exile appointed by the Nightwings shall be free. Absolved of all misdeeds. Returned to glory in the Commonwealth. Her adversary and all others shall remain to carry out their rightful sentences._ **

Jodariel moved with glacial slowness. Her hooves were stuck to the floor. Lead weights were tied to her arms. She stood, staring without seeing.

White raiments had been laid out for her. The were clothes. Just clothes. Such as she had worn many times before. But all that, that was just facts. Facts that had nothing to do with Jodariel.

They were strange things. Alien. Some pristine intrusion from somewhere else. Somewhere outside of Jodariel's reach or understanding.

"And here I thought you were statuesque before."

Jodariel didn't turn around to face the speaker. Didn't move at all. The words were just noise, as strange and incomprehensible as the raiments. Slowly, though, the noise acquired a meaning that crept into Jodariel's mind.

"Pamitha," she said, still not turning around.

Pamitha breezed past her, her red wings brushing ever so briefly against Jodariel's skin. Jodariel felt her gaze shifting away from the strange clothes and onto the much more familiar presence of the Harp.

"Everyone's waiting for you, you know," Pamitha said. "It's your big moment, after all."

"Yes," said Jodariel.

Pamitha tilted her head slightly and looked at her strangely. "Are you alright?"

"No," said Jodariel.

Pamitha waited until it became obvious Jodariel wasn't going to say anything else.

"And...?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"Everything," Jodariel replied.

Pamitha rolled her eyes dramatically. "Ah, this is going to take a while, I see. But what could possibly be wrong, hmm? You're about to leave this place."

"I'm about to leave you," said Jodariel.

Pamitha said nothing for a while. A myriad of emotions flashed across her face. It was quite the unusual sight. The Harp so often hid all her feelings behind a sardonic mask. Jodariel would've appreciated seeing it, if she wasn't here, now.

Pamitha closed her eyes and smiled. "Oh, Jodariel. You do so love hurting me."

"What?" Jodariel snapped.

"I'm already to blame for trapping one woman I care about down here. I wouldn't be able to bear it if I became guilty of trapping another."

"You have nothing to feel guilty about," Jodariel said.

"Don't I? Then why aren't you out there, right now?" Pamitha said. "Your freedom waits for you. The one thing you've yearned for all these long years. Will you give it up for me?"

"Ye-" Jodariel began, and stopped. "Perhaps. I don't know. I mean, look at me. What am I?"

"Magnificent," Pamitha said.

"I'm a Demon. A creature of the Downside," said Jodariel. "What is the Commonwealth to me any more? What place do I have there?"

"No doubt the Commonwealth will give you a position of power and influence," said Pamitha.

"On the Bloodborder," said Jodariel. "To fight your people again."

"The Highwing Remnants, you mean," said Pamitha.

"Your people," said Jodariel.

A smile flashed across Pamitha's face. Jodariel recognized this one. She hated it. It was a smile that hid.

"Well, you can find some other purpose up there," Pamitha said. "No doubt you can aid... _the Plan_."

"It doesn't need me," said Jodariel.

Pamitha sighed. When she spoke, all the usual breeziness had left her voice.

"You will leave, Jodariel," she said. "No matter what excuses you make, you will go. Staying here will be a mistake. Staying here because of me will be an even greater mistake."

"It will be mine to make."

"And it will kill me," Pamitha hissed. "I can't... If my love destroys someone _again_ , then... You must go."

Finally Jodariel moved. She stepped closer to Pamitha, reached out to her. Moving with all the care she could manage, Jodariel caressed Pamitha's delicate cheek.

"You love me?"

Pamitha smiled, but couldn't hide the sadness in her eyes. "Haven't I made that clear?"

"Not really."

Jodariel embraced her. Pamitha was so... refined. So slender and warm and soft. So unlike her own brutish body. Holding her, Jodariel was afraid she might crush her. But she wouldn't. Pamitha only seemed fragile.

"Do you love me?" Jodariel asked again.

Pamitha sighed. "At first, it was just teasing. You were so easy to rile up, after all. Then... later on... perhaps I was alone and you were convenient. Comforting. Until..."

"Yes?"

"Fine. Yes. I give in. I love you," said Pamitha. "I want to share my life with you. But I want, more than anything, for you to leave."

Jodariel carefully lifted Pamitha's chin. She wasn't smiling any more and something flickered in the depths of her eyes. Jodariel leaned in and kissed her.

It wasn't their first kiss. And it was their first kiss. Pamitha hadn't just found Jodariel convenient, Jodariel had found Pamitha convenient. She was... had been... company when Jodariel needed it. Was able to give her the physical affection she wanted. But little more than that. It had been an arrangement, not a relationship.

And now... finally...

"I love you," Jodariel said.

"Then you will get dressed and leave," said Pamitha.

"As you wish," said Jodariel. "I'll wait for you."

"Next time you see me, I too might have horns and hooves."

"And...? Why should that bother me?"

"It might be a rather long wait."

"Then I'll wait a rather long time," said Jodariel.

Pamitha sighed. "You really are impossible sometimes, you know?"

* * * * *

Jodariel emerged from the Blackwagon all in white. Before her, the Shimmer-Pool cast its ethereal light. Above her, the dimming stars shone faintly.

Staring straight ahead, Jodariel strode passed Volfred and Bertude, Pamitha and Xhae. When she reached the Pool she knelt next to Lendel and raised her arms in supplication to the despised Voice and the uncaring Scribes.

Jodariel didn't listen while the Voice went through his ritual platitudes. Instead she found herself hyper-focused on the Shimmer-Pool and the Fall of Soliam. The sound of rushing water raged in her ears and she could see every little drop of water as it moved, ever so slowly, upwards.

Silence, except for the fury of the water. Jodariel became aware of Lendel stealing annoyed glances at her.

Time.

Jodariel rose to her hooves and walked forward. Her body was heavier than the Titans and every step took an Age. She walked into the Pool until the bright water reached to her waist. She turned around and faced the watching Nightwings. She wished could say she saw Volfred, Bertrude and Xhae, but she didn't. Her eyes saw only Pamitha.

Pamitha smiled. From this distance she seemed sincere.

Jodariel wanted to say something, but there were no words. There were too many words. She didn't know, right now, what she wanted to say. Only that she had no time to say it.

The waves rose and spiralled around Jodariel, stealing the sight of Pamitha away from her.

Jodariel rose, and was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> **_Godspeed, Captain Jodariel._ **


End file.
